Manicpop at 04:29, 18 October 2026

2026-10-18T04:29:25Z

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'''DAMF''' (damage factor) is a configurable ship-class value that scales damage from the weapons that use it. It describes resistance to those hits, not the ship's cargo capacity or current cargo load.

== Introduction in classic GE ==
The [[GEREADME.DOC#As_Released_(3.2c)|classic 3.2c release notes]] (December 1993) introduce the <code>SnnDAMF</code> ship-class option in place of the former <code>SnnRES1</code> reserved field. The stated goal was to let a large ship be fragile or a small ship be tough, rather than making damage resistance follow ship size. The setting remains in the 3.2e class table as <code>SnnDAMF</code> in [[MBMGESHP.MSG]].

Classic applies DAMF to [[Mines|mine]], [[Torpedoes|torpedo]], and [[Missiles|missile]] damage through <code>ton_fact()</code>. Despite that helper's old name, it uses the target class's DAMF:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
adjusted damage = raw damage / (DAMF / 100)
</syntaxhighlight>

Thus DAMF 100 leaves that damage unchanged, DAMF 200 halves it, and DAMF 50 doubles it. These are ''damage'' ratios, not exact survival times: shields and other combat mechanics still matter.

== The classic phaser exception ==
Classic standard and hyper-phasers do '''not''' use DAMF. They divide their calculated damage by <code>1 + (class maximum cargo tons / 15000)</code>. The class's configured cargo ''capacity'' is used even when its hold is empty. This is the incomplete transition documented in [[Classic bug: Phaser durability uses cargo capacity]].

The stock Sarten Obliterator illustrates the difference. Its maximum cargo capacity is 234,000 tons and its DAMF is 500, so classic uses these divisors:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
Mine, torpedo, missile: 500 / 100 = 5 (20% of raw damage)
Standard, hyper-phaser: 1 + 234000 / 15000 = 16.6 (about 6% of raw damage)
</syntaxhighlight>

For comparison, the stock Cyberquad has 12,500 tons of cargo capacity, giving it a phaser divisor of about 1.83. For equal pre-divisor phaser damage, the Obliterator therefore takes roughly one-ninth as much as the Cyberquad. Its phaser resistance behaves like a DAMF of 1660, not its configured 500. This does not describe a Sarten-specific defense; it follows from the old cargo-based phaser formula, before any other hit or shield effects.

== Damage outside DAMF ==
DAMF is not a universal reduction to every form of damage. In classic, the phaser exception above is the most important ordinary-weapon case. [[Ion cannons]] also use their own damage calculation rather than the target's DAMF. A planet collision destroys the ship directly, while [[Wormholes|wormhole]] damage, [[Galactic perimeter|perimeter]] damage, [[Enforcer Planet]] damage, and overspeed damage are applied by separate paths. [[Self-destruct]] blast damage likewise does not use the ''target's'' DAMF as a defensive divisor. These examples should not be read as promising that every future or administrator-created damage source uses DAMF.

== ge-next ==
Since ge-next 0.2, standard and hyper-phasers use the same DAMF-based helper as mines, torpedoes, and missiles. Cargo capacity no longer acts as hidden phaser armor. This changes the balance of large-capacity and high-DAMF classes compared with classic. Installed [[Ship upgrades#Armor plating|armor plating]] can further reduce applicable incoming weapon damage after that scaling.

ge-next also uses the ''exploding ship's'' DAMF when sizing its outgoing self-destruct blast. That is an offensive use of the value, not protection granted by the ''target's'' DAMF.

== Minimum configurable value ==
ge-next limits <code>SnnDAMF</code> to 77 or higher. This protects a 16-bit missile-energy field from the amplified result of applying a very low DAMF to a maximum-strength ''classic'' missile. Classic permits a missile with 50,000 energy; on impact, it applies the target's DAMF to that energy and stores the result back in an unsigned 16-bit field, whose maximum is 65,535.

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
DAMF 76: 50000 / (76 / 100) = 65789.47... (too large)
DAMF 77: 50000 / (77 / 100) = 64935.06... (fits)
</syntaxhighlight>

Thus 77 is the first whole-number DAMF that keeps the classic maximum within the field. This prevents an out-of-range conversion, not division by zero or arithmetic underflow. ge-next normally limits newly launched missiles to 20,000 energy; even at DAMF 77, their adjusted energy is only about 25,974. The 77 bound is therefore conservative for the current normal launch path.

The lower launch-energy limit does not mean ge-next missiles deal only two-fifths as much damage. After DAMF adjusts the stored energy, ge-next divides it by 20,000 when calculating missile damage, where classic divided it by 50,000. A 20,000-energy ge-next missile therefore reaches the same fraction of this calculation as a 50,000-energy classic missile. ge-next also raises the default <code>MDAMMAX</code> from 25 to 35, so their actual damage is not identical. The 77 limit concerns the energy stored in the unsigned 16-bit field before the later damage calculation.

== See also ==
* [[Classic bug: Phaser durability uses cargo capacity]]
* [[Ship class configuration]]
* [[Hull damage]]

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[[Category:Game reference]]
[[Category:Ships]]
[[Category:Combat]]

DAMF - Revision history

Manicpop at 04:29, 18 October 2026